Snap operating device

ABSTRACT

A snap operating vane of this invention constituting an automatic blinker particularly adapted to the control of automobile signals is characterized by a plurality of parallel bosses being aligned at predetermined positions and having the center lines forming a certain angle with the longitudinal axis of an electric heating belt, said electric heating belt being secured to the vane through slots in substantial extended elements of said vane where the longitudinal axis of said slot and extended elements are coincidental with the axis of said belts.

United States Patent n91 Kamlyama et a1.

[ SNAP OPERATING DEVICE [75] inventors: Akira Kamiyama; Koichi Kikuchi;

Kazuyuki Ishida, Kiryu- Japan [73] Assignee: Mitsuliadenkisersalk- Usho Co. Ltd,

Gumma-Prefecture, Japan [22] Filed: June jtl; 197i) [21] Appl.No.: 158,242

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Oct. 28, 1970 Japan ..45/106412 Oct. 28, 1970 Japan ..45/94310 [52] US. Cl ..337/135, 337/138 [51] lnt.Cl. ..H01h61/00,1-10lh 71/18 [58] Field of Search ..337/135, 136,137, 138,139, 337/196 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Jakobs ..337/135 145] Jan. 16, 1973 3.218.415 11/1965 Voorman,.lr. ..337/136 3,349,205 10/1967 Taylor 1 ..337/l38 3,305,654 2/1967 Silberg ..337/138 Primary Examiner-David Smith, Jr. AttorneyFidelman, Wolfe & Leitner [57] ABSTRACT A snap operating vane of this invention constituting an automatic blinker particularly adapted to the control of automobile signals is characterized by a plurality of parallel bosses being aligned at predetermined positions and having the center lines forming a certain angle with the longitudinal axis of an electric heating belt, said electric heating belt being secured to the vane through slots in substantial extended elements of said vane where the longitudinal axis of said slot and extended elements are coincidental with the axis of said belts.

4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJAH is I975 3,71 1. 808

SHEET 1 OF 3 F IG.I

Prior Art PATENTEDJANIBIQYS 3 711 808 swam 2 BF 3 Prior Art FIG.4

PATENTEDJAI 16 I973 SHEET30F3 FIG.6

FIG.7

SNAP OPERATING DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a structure of a snap operating vane. Heretofore in a general snap operating vane as explained later with reference to the accompanying drawings, two curves or bosses are arranged in series along a diagonal on a rectangular vane evading the center of the vane thereby to effect stress deformation. An electric heating belt which performs expansion and contraction by the temperature variation is secured to said vane along the line including previously provided bosses at the forward end of conductive metal fittings on the rear surface of a lower point of the central position of the vane. The lower end of said conductive metal fittings being fitted to the insulative base. The conventional snap operating vane having such construction is used in types of circuits, i.e. series type and parallel type. The desired features of a snap operating device are described:

l. The amount of the vane varied by the expansion and contraction of the electric heating belt must be large.

2. The electric heating belt must be long.

3. From the viewpoint of production, the same device must be adaptable to various bulb loads and their fine adjustments must be possible.

4. Stability in the production must exists.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION the fitting of the electric heating belt to the vane, thus the amount of the vane varies due to the expansion and contraction of electric heating belt is increased.

The second object of the present invention resides in that the projected parts at both ends of the snap operating vane are bent at their V-slot elements thereby to facilitate the precise bending of the projected elements about a line perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said assembled electric heating belt.

The third object of the present invention resides in that a plurality of parallel bosses for stress deformation are provided in the vane, and by adjusting spaces between said parallel bosses the vane of the material having the same thickness can be adapted to various bulb loads in wide ranges.

The fourth object of the present invention resides in that, particularly in a parallel type direction-indicating blinker the gap produced upon opening and closing the contact as will be mentioned later is larger than-that of the conventional one.

The fifth object of the present invention resides in that the center lines of said plurality of parallel bosses for stress deformation are arranged forming a certain angle with the longitudinal axis of the electric heating belt, and the line connecting the inner ends of said bosses is perpendicular to the with the longitudinal axis of the electric heating belt, whereby upon the bending of the vane excessive force is not applied to the vane and the electric heating belt.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

.vane which has heretofore been known;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a series type directionindicating blinker which has heretofore been known;

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of a parallel type direction-indicating blinker which has heretofore been known;

FIG. 5 is a front elevation showing one embodiment of a snap operating vane according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line 66 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a front elevation showing another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a snap operating vane. Heretofore, in a snap operating vane, as shown in FIG. I, in order to cause a rectangular vane 1 made of a conductive resilient material to precisely carry out a snap operation, two curves or bosses 2 are arranged on the surface of said vane 1 in series along a diagonal so as to evade the center of the vane 1 thereby to carry out stress deformation. An electric heating belt 3 for carrying out expansion and contraction by the variation of heat is extended over the bosses 2 and is secured to said. vane l for bending said vane 1. Generally, the snap operating vane is secured to the forward end of conductive metal fittings fitted on the insulative base plate on the rear surface in the vicinity C at the lower part of the central position of the vane 1 as shown in FIG. 1. This is to achieve anti-vibration property, since antivibration property is deteriorated at a point spaced too far from the center, for example, in the vicinity of a point designated by D.

Two examples using the conventional snap operating vane having the aforementioned construction will be explained hereinbelow. Firstly, in a series type direction'indicating blinker a contact 4 is provided on the center of the electric heating belt 3, said contact 4 being constantly in contact with said electric heating belt 3 and arranged in the circuit shown in FIG. 3. In said circuit, when a direction-indicating switch 5 is fallen in either left or right direction, a current flows from a battery 6 as shown by arrow to instantly light a bulb 7, and simultaneously the electric heating belt 3 is heated and expanded by said current. When belt 3 has expanded a certain amount, the vane l is reversed to open the contact 4, whereby the bulb 7 is put off. When said bulb 7 is put off. When said bulb is put off, the electric heating belt 3 is cooled by ambient air and contracted, and the vane l is re-inverted at a certain time point and restored to its original position thereby to light the bulb 7. The aforementioned action is repeated hereinafter to carry out blinking of a bulb 7.

In a parallel type direction-indicating blinker which is the second example, a contact 8 opened constantly is provided on the rear surface of the center E of the vane 1. An insulated iron wire 9 for heating is wound around the electric heating belt 3, and its circuit is constructed as shown in FIG. 4. More specifically, when a directionindicating switch is fallen in either left or right direction, a current flows from a battery 11 in the direction shown by arrow to heat and expand the electric heating belt 3 and a heating wire. The vane l is reversed at a certain time point so as to bring into contact with the contact 8, whereupon a large current flows in the direction shown by dotted arrow to light a bulb 12. Upon this occasion, since the electric heating belt 3 and the wire 9 for heating are short-circuited by the contact 8, they are cooled by ambient air and contracted. The vane l is re-inverted at a certain time point, the contact 8 is opened thereby to put off the bulb 12, and the electric heating belt 3 and the heating wire 9 are heated. The aforementioned action is repeated hereinafter to carry out the blinking of the bulb l2.

As has been illustrated in the foregoing, the snap operating vane requires the following design criteria:

1. Since the switching movement of the contacts 4 and 8 is carried out by the expansion and contraction of the electric heating belt 3, it is necessary that the amount the vane. 1 varies at its contact positions with respect to the fulcrum be large.

2. It is desirable that the electric heating belt 3 be as long as possible (in the case where the material used is predetermined and the size of the vane is also predetermined).

3. Viewed from a productional angle, it is desirable to produce stress deformation for different the bulb loads respectively from material of the same quality and the same plate thickness and further finely adjust said stress deformation.

4. It is desirable that the stability in production is added.

It is, therefore,'an object of the present invention to provide a snap operating vane which is improved in efficiencies particularly with respect to the items 1 (2) and (3) of preceding design criteria.

Oneembodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. Reference numeral designates a vane whose main part 20a is formed into a circular shape, and projected elements 20b are provided in opposite to each other on the center line Z provided at an optional angle of less than 45 with respect to the center line X. These projected elements 20 substantially extend from the circumference of vane 20 by 20 to 30 percent of the vane diameter. Said projected part 20b has a groove or slot 21 and is'bent downward loosely. Reference numeral 22 designates an electric heating belt or expansible tractive member which is bent in the vicinity of both ends so that it is superimposed on the projected part 20b, and its end is further bent downward at an angle of 90. The electric heating belt 22 flexibly bends the vane 20, and both ends thereof are fitted in the groove 21 of the projected part 20b and extended over the vane 20. The projected part 20b has a parallel width with respect to the center line Z or a tapered width decreasing or increasing difinitely toward the external direction, and if necessary, a groove in which the electric heating belt 22 is fitted may be provided. Reference numeral 23 designates a fixed portion due to spot welding or the like. Bosses 24, two forming a set, which are provided in spot symmetry using the center 0 as a fulcrum so that the line connecting the ends of the bosses 24 near the center line Y is perpendicular to the center line Z and each boss 24 is arranged in parallel with the center line X.

The snap-operating vane according to the present invention having the aforementioned construction is employed in the same manner as the conventional example.

Since the device according to the present invention has the aforementioned structure, it has such effects as will be described hereinbelow.

I. Since the groove 21 is provided in the projected part 20b and an electric heating belt 22 is a junction fitted in said groove 21, the quality is stable in the production and improvements in workability and durability can be obtained.

2. Since the device according to the present invention has a plurality of parallel bosses 24 for stress deformation, stress deformation can be adjusted by adjusting the space between said parallel bosses 24 and therefore a blinker adaptedto a variety of load capacitiescan be manufactured by same plate thickness can be manufactured. When the space between the bosses 24 is made large, stress after the deformation becomes large accordingly.

3. Particularly in the parallel type direction-indicating blinker, the gap for switching contacts is selected to be wider as compared with devices that curve on the center line Z, because the point of stress deformation becomes equivalent to the center line of the boss 24 at the right-hand lower part of the center line Y (when a fixed point of the vane 20 is denoted by F and that of the contact by G).

4. Since the line connecting the ends of the bosses 24 near the center line Y is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the electric heating belt 22, the line is coincident with the central direction of the curve of the vane 20 and therefore no excessive force is applied to the electric heating belt 22.

As has been described in the foregoing, the conventional snap operating vane is shown in FIG. 1 and has following:

I. It is preferable to bend the curving portion about a line perpendicular to the diagonal. However,since the bent portion assumes a form of a scalene triangle S, upon bending operation during manufacture, it is liable to produce slide depending upon the shape thereof, and it is difficult to obtain a curved vane from a rectangular sheet and maintain the perpendicularity of the two diagonals. Therefore due to the instability of the diagonals the fulcrum position of the heating belt 3 does not become perpendicular to the heating belt 3, whereby instability in operation is generated.

2. Upon the resistance welding operation of the heating belt 3 since the curved portion is scalene triangle, the precise welding position cannot be secured by eyesight and instability (slight distortion or'twist to the boss on the vane l) is produced. Upon expansion and contraction of the heating belt 3, twisting force is applied to the heating belt 3, and it causes instability of blinking operation and break of the heating belt.

Another embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, provides a snap operating vane which eliminates the aforementioned defects.

Reference numeral 30 designates a vane whose main body 30a is rectangular (in some cases, it may be circular or oval), and a projected element 30b having a groove 31 is provided at the diagonal portion. Said projected part 30b being gently curved downwardly and substantially extend from the rectangular vane by 20 to 30 of the diagonal. Reference numeral 33 designates bosses projected on the surface of the main body 300 of the vane 30 and evaded the center on the diagonal Z which is provided with the projected part 30b Two pairs of bosses 33 are arranged so that each boss is parallel to the center line X as shown with one-dotted chain line of FIG. 7, and the inner ends thereof being arranged at both sides of the diagonal Z and the line connecting both inner ends is perpendicular to the line Z. Reference numeral 32 designates an electric heating or expansible tractive member which is bent so that it overlaps with the projected part 30b in the vicinity of both ends, and both ends in the belt are bent so that they are fitted in the groove 31, and are spot welded at 34. The central portion overlapped with the vane 30. Reference numeral 35 designates a V-slot which facilitates the bending of the extended elements 30b and assures that the crease of the bend will be perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the heating belt 32.

The snap operating vane of the present invention constructed as described in the foregoing has the effects enumerated in the following:

1. The projected part can be easily bent perpendicularly to the diagonal Z. Since it has a predetermined width, the slide, etc. while bending operation can be prevented and the uniformity of the quality can be maintained. Furthermore, a V-slot 35 can be provided for obtaining the bending position, if necessary.

2. With respect to the securing operation of electric heating belt 32, the electric heating belt 32 is coincident with a groove 31 thereby to easily obtain the normal position. Even when the groove 31 is not provided, it is sufficient if said electric heating belt is coincident with the center of the width of projected part 30b, and therefore the position can be secured by eyesight.

3. Improvement of workability as well as uniformity of the efficiency and safety of the product can be secured and simultaneously durability can also be improved.

We claim: j

l. A snap operating device characterized in that said device comprises a vane made of resilient material having generally a single plane and an expansible tractive member secured to said vane at its both ends, said vane being bent and held in a stress-deformed state by the contracted state of said tractive member, said vane includes elements projecting substantially therefrom and being diagonally opposed, and said projected elements include hooking grooves for receiving said expansible tractive members ends.

2. A snap operating device characterized in that said device comprises a vane made of a resilient material having generally a single plane and an expansible tractive member secured to said vane at its both ends, said vane being bent in a contracted state of said tractive member and maintained in a stress-deformed state, said vane includes projected parts extending substantially from both ends of said vane by 20 to 30 percent of said vanes diagonal, and hooking grooves are provided at the innersides of said projected parts, and slots are provided at the outsides of said projected parts to regulate bending of said project parts relative to said vane.

3. A snap operating device characterized in that said device comprises a vane made of a resilient material having generally a single plane and an expansible tractive member secured to said vane at its both ends, said vane being bent in a contracted state of said tractive member and maintained in a stress-deformed state around the line forming a certain angle against itself and further in a tensed state, and projected parts are provided at both ends of said vane extending substantially from said vane, and hooking grooves are provided in said projected part, said vane includes a plurality of substantially parallel bosses whose parallel axis form an acute angle with the longitudinal axis of said expansible tractive member, said bosses being arranged in two sets symmetric to the center of said vane, and being arranged so that a line tangential to the inner ends ofa set of bosses is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said tractive member.

4. A snap operating device characterized in that said device comprises a vane made of a resilient material having generally a single plane and an expansible tractive member secured to said vane at its both ends, said vane being bent in a contracted state of said tractive member and maintained in a stress-deformed state, said vane includes a plurality of bosses each of whose longitudinal axis being substantially parallel and forming a certain angle with the longitudinal axis of said tractive member, said bosses being arranged in two sets symmetric to the center of said vane, and being arranged so that lines connecting inner ends of the bosses of a set are perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said tractive member. 

1. A snap operating device characterized in that said device comprises a vane made of resilient material having generally a single plane and an expansible tractive member secured to said vane at its both ends, said vane being bent and held in a stressdeformed state by the contracted state of said tractive member, said vane includes elements projecting substantially therefrom and being diagonally opposed, and said projected elements include hooking grooves for receiving said expansible tractive member''s ends.
 2. A snap operating device characterized in that said device comprises a vane made of a resilient material having generally a single plane and an expansible tractive member secured to said vane at its both ends, said vane being bent in a contracted state of said tractive member and maintained in a stress-deformed state, said vane includes projected parts extending substantially from both ends of said vane by 20 to 30 percent of said vane''s diagonal, and hooking grooves are provided at the innersides of said projected parts, and slots are provided at the outsides of said projected parts to regulate bending of said project parts relative to said vane.
 3. A snap operating device characterized in that said device comprises a vane made of a resilient material having generally a single plane and an expansible tractive member secured to said vane at its both ends, said vane being bent in a contracted state of said tractive member and maintained in a stress-deformed state around the line forming a certain angle against itself and further in a tensed state, and projected parts are provided at both ends of said vane extending substantially from said vane, and hooking grooves are provided in said projected part, said vane includes a plurality of substantially parallel bosses whose parallel axis form an acute angle with the longitudinal axis of said expansible tractive member, said bosses being arranged in two sets symmetric to the center of said vane, and being arranged so that a line tangential to the inner ends of a set of bosses is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said tractive member.
 4. A snap operating device characterized in that said device comprises a vane made of a resilient material having generally a single plane and an expansible tractive member secured to said vane at its both ends, said vane being bent in a contracted state of said tractive member and maintained in a stress-deformed state, said vane includes a plurality of bosses each of whose longitudinal axis being substantially parallel and forming a certain angle with the longitudinal axis of said tractive member, said bosses being arranged in two sets symmetric to the center of said vane, and being arranged so that lines connecting inner ends of the bosses of a set are perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said tractive member. 